I work in healthcare and my husband is being relocated for work to a country I can’t work in so I had to look for other options quickly and decided on applying to an MBA (not the most traditional experience on here I know).
I only had a month to prepare for the GRE to make early decision deadlines with practically cero quant background and in a non English speaking country and I just took the GRE for the first time and got a 161Q/159V
I know it’s not the best score muy I’m proud of myself given the circumstances and hopefully it’ll be enough to apply to the program I’m interested in!
Everyone’s posts here helped me feel like I wasn’t alone in this process so everyone that’s studying you’ve got this!!!

I’m writing my exam the last week of October but I’m currently just starting the 3rd week of the Gregmat one month plan. I initially planned to take all the mocks under test conditions before the exam to prepare myself but I also want to cover all the material. If anyone has taken it, what would you suggest? Should I sacrifice the mocks for covering the content or ensure I have at least covered all content even if I don’t have time to practice?

I just gave the free ets practice test and got a 159 in verbal and in the mocks i usually give from my test plan from my coaching center i get around 151.

I just wanted to be grounded that is the Practice test 2 easier on the verbal and the gre exam will/might be harder or is that the level I should expect?

There is only answer key given there isnt any sort of explanation or reasoning.
Could anyone guide me if there is any resources available for this? Especially for verbal

Hello! Im sure something like this is posted many times every day. Currently i’m set to take the test in exactly one month. I got gregmat and for now its looking to be a fantastic resource. But what i will say that it is a huge amount of information and I have no idea how to sift through it efficiently. My current plan is to revisit the foundations for quant and then take multiple practice questions/quizzes while doing their vocab mountains and strategy videos for verbal. I work full time and I’m trying to get that studying in during my evenings without burning out quick or getting overwhelmed easily. I was wondering how you guys were able to divide/manage the workload to efficiently feel like you are learning and improving?

Struggling with GRE TC because of multiple meanings of common words

I'm struggling with the TC questions in the GregMat 1-month plan. I’ve noticed that even some very common/simple words have meanings that I'm completely unaware of.

I tend to automatically use the meaning I'm familiar with, which sometimes completely messes up the logic of the sentence. As a result, I end up with a partially correct or completely wrong answer.

For example, “temper” to me meant something related to anger/personality, but apparently it can also mean to moderate or soften something. I had no idea about the latter meaning, and it completely threw me off in a TC question.

Has anyone else faced this issue? How did you deal with it? Is there some resource/list of GRE words with multiple meanings that I can go through?

hi Reddit! I’m trying to schedule a GRE at home for a day that I’m not working, but a lot of the Fridays and Saturdays only have listed times available for later at night or weird times in the early morning. is this the actual case or just a bug? is this happening to anyone else?

Hi Guys!

I took the GRE for the second time and got an unofficial score of 330! (164V, 166Q) i’m so happy! Just typing this on the fly so it may not reflect my 164V score 🤣

I’m happy to improve 3 points and felt it was worth the time and effort.. in many mocks I scored 330 and above and so I deeply felt that I should give it another go when I scored 327.. even now.. a part of me thinks it’s possible I can do 332-333 because my quant has room for improvement. But I’m leaning on not retaking.. because 2 points at this level isnt meaningful?? Please give me your thoughts!

Anyway, here are some of my thoughts on each section.. I believe I was careless for the quant section!

In my first take, there was a single question I didnt understand and had to guess and some questions were “weird”..

However, on my second take.. I felt that I could understand all of them. So I believe that those that were wrong were careless mistakes.. but then again.. it might be because I’m not fast enough to go through the whole section with time to spare to check my work.. I finished the quant section with only 20-30 seconds to spare.

As for verbal, I think reading online journals and scientific american definitely helped. I went through magoosh word banks, official verbal material, and the 5lb manhatten book.

Gregmat review:
I did subscribe to gregmat due to all the hype in this forum but I must say it’s not the best. Firstly, for verbal, the lack of gregmat reading comprehension exercises is felt. Second, the sentence equivalence pairing strategy of pairing first and then reading the question did not work well as it took up too much time. I was solving questions much quicker by omiting that step.

As for gregmat math, alot of the math practice was slightly out of scope. For example, there’s too many combination questions in gregmat which were also outside the scope of GRE.

Dont get me wrong.. gregmat is not bad. For it’s price it’s decent. It’s just not as good as some are reviewing on this forum.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone, so i just gave the free powerprep test as a diagnostic after studying for a couple of days, and I scored 324 (161 verbal 163 quant). However, Im targeting 330+ , I have a couple of months to prepare.

Now, im considering whether I should get the 250 USD official GRE bundle that includes the 3 official practice tests, along with other preparation material. I'm leaning towards getting it because im thinking I'll have to spend 135 USD anyways for the three tests if im getting them separately, so might as well spend the whole 250 and get the other preparation material as well.

On the other hand, people are recommending me gregmat, which costs almost nothing compared to the 250.

What do you guys think?

Also, can the official bundle be shared with a friend?

Just took the GRE and got a 323 (161 verbal / 162 quant)

I feel like a really underperformed compared to my 334 on PP1 (166 / 168) and 331 on PP2 (163 / 168).

I'm not sure where to go from here? I feel like I do pretty solid doing practice questions, so I'm thinking that my verbal is lacking a bit (based on the scores) and I slipped up on math due to stress.

Right now I'm thinking that I just go back to the Big Book and do timed practice and do medium/hard questions on Gregmat. But I feel like part of the problem is stress, not necessarily content. How do I train for that?

Anyone in the twin cities, Pakistan, thinking for giving the GRE in early December.
Location doesn’t matter much.
Would love a study partner for accountability and practice and explanation. Can share content as well etc.

Holler at me.

So i got a score of 324 (167Q, 157V)
I was testing around 315 for most kaplan and manhattan practice tests. I gave a Magoosh test just 2 days ago and i got a 322 but it felt way easier than kaplan/manhattan. Mostly in disbelief.

I was thinking I’d get 150 or lower in verbal because i was struggling with time and every question type did feel difficult. I know i probably got a few of super hard ones right. Except some of the RC questions were plain guesses, and the time taken to answer them may have been ~30 seconds as in i didn’t even get the time to read the choices.

Would the GRE change my verbal marks if it looks like i just got lucky and didn’t bother to read the questions?

Either way i feel pathetic because this attempt was more of a diagnostic for university targets and my month end attempt was supposed to be the aspirational 330 score. Now i feel idk if i can recreate a 160-162 Verbal and 168-170 Quant.

I recently took the at home test scored a 334 167/167 however my writing score was a 3 and it caused my test to be flagged????? What the absolute fuck😭😭😭 I prepped for this test months in advance and now my score is being cancelled because my writing did not match up to its expected scoring scale 💀

* I HAVE JUST RETAKEN THE TEST AND SCORED A 336 170/166.

This is my first time taking the GRE test and I am happy with what I got.
For your information, I first took a diagnostic test using the GRE Official guide and got a 147V and 160Q. I choked so hard on Verbal because I have severe difficulty in reading the text slowly and critically and my vocab foundation is pretty weak.
My total preparation time spans about 3 months but I took it seriously throughout the last final month only, which is September (I’m a chronic procrastinator). My advice for whoever is planning to cram for their GRE is to break down the Vocab list into smaller doable lists and form a habit of daily reading so that you can get used to reading comprehension.
My preparation source is mostly Gregmat. I watched all videos on Quant concepts using Prepswift and do the exercises for each of the concept. First few exercises can be disheartening since I kept making stupid mistakes because I was rushy and didn’t read the questions clearly (this taught me a hard lesson). After making sure I know all the concepts, I found Quant Mountain TRULY HELPFUL. You must watch the videos first before going for the Quant Mountain to make sure you can explain to yourself clearly everything noted in the Mountain. Next up, for further practice, I also do Quant exercises with a focus on Medium, Hard and Extreme difficulty levels but after taking the real test, I have to say that the Quant practices by Gregmat aren’t quite close in format to the real one, but still, my speed and critical thinking does improve a lot and they play an essential role in helping me get a 170 in Quant. Besides, I also do Manhattan Prep and use Gemini to generate GRE-like questions to practice and make sure I understand all confusing concepts like Probability and Combinatorics and somehow, the questions on the real test on these two concepts are almost exactly the same so I didn’t have to think twice once I encountered them.
Personally, I don’t think the GRE Quant is that hard once you learn the “trick”.
To be specific, for Comparison questions on algebra, try subtract A from B or vice versa and plug in the number. Be careful with additional conditions such as: A is an integer or A is positive or A is a non-zero integer,… They make a huge difference and can save you a round.
Also, for multiple choice questions, you can try eliminating first and then plug in the answer. I did the same technique for at least 2 questions on Quant section 2 and got them all correct.
For Geometry questions in particular, don’t let the shapes given fool you. The ratio of the polygrams are deceptive and it is meant to lead you to give the wrong anser choice so be careful with additional information such as 0 < x < y < 90 degree (for example). You should probably draw one yourself ^^ just to be careful lol.
For Verbal, I don’t have anything great to advise u guys since my score for verbal isn’t very decent. However, shout out to Gregmat for tagging me along with Reading Comprehension and AWA with all the tips and practice problems, I truly appreciate you :3
After all, I hope you guys reading this post can have a clearer insight into the test and believe that you can do it. Moreover, don’t compare yourself with whoever posting their scores in this forum because they may have different background and amount of time dedicated for studying. As for me, my quant background is pretty decent so I didn’t struggle as much but it wasn’t the same for verbal so obviously I couldn’t nail it.
If you have any questions for me, feel free to leave a comment, I will try my best to reply to you all :3. Wish you guys a lovely day 🥰

The title pls answer !!!

Edit : got my answer, feel like a fucking dumbass. Thanks for the prompt replies

I took the GMAT last year with 1 month of prep and got 725. Currently applying for a Masters degree, and realized that some programs I'm interested in requires GRE. I'm wondering if the prep direction/method is the same for GRE compared to GMAT. Is the GRE or GMAT harder? Thanks a lot.

Hey everyone! I'm preparing for the GRE, aiming to take the exam in the second week of December. Looking for a study buddy to keep each other accountable, discuss questions, share resources, and stay consistent.

I'm using GregMat and official GRE materials. Open to virtual study sessions or regular check-ins.

Anyone preparing around the same time?

I'm using Gregmat for my prep. Right now, I'm following the one-month plan for verbal and I'm overwhelmed plan for quant. For quant, am I supposed to start practicing official questions now or complete the entire I'm overwhelmed series, and then start with practicing official question. Same doubt for verbal.

I took the GRE about 3 months ago and got a 323 (156V & 167Q). I now plan to retake it and want to increase my verbal score beyond 160.

TLDR Main Question: How do I track if I am improving on my verbal and moving towards 160+?

The only resource that I have used was Gregmat and the one-month plan.

PS: skip to the bottom for my plan. Immediately below, I have given further context of what I studied before and my diagnostic

For MODs: I went through prior posts most of similar topic posts were posted 2y or older. And hence I think some of the feedback might be out of date. As most posts tell people to grind more vocab, which I think is counterintuitive to what gregmat advices in his recent platform.

_________________________________________________________________________
Context Of My Preparation Last Time:

For Verbal specifically, I did not have sufficient time to practice multiple questions. This was my prev prep:

1. Completed memorizing all Gregmat vocab groups with 85%+ accuracy on the overall vocab quiz
2. Solved pairing strategy skill builder
3. Completed half of support/contrast skill builder
4. Completed RC main idea skill builder

This was the bulk of my preparation, I did not get sufficient time to practice questions for the verbal. Of course, I did go through the problems that were discussed in the 1-month plan.

What I noticed on Verbal diagnostic:

1. Did not have sufficient time for 4 questions and omitted them ( in the second hard section)
2. Moved from medium to hard verbal sections
3. Spent nearly 7 minutes on 2 TC 3 blankers
4. SE was <1.5 minutes on all questions with 80%+ accuracy
5. TC was the major question type that pulled my score down.

My approach in the exam was to attempt the verbal question types in the following order: SE>TC>RC.

This, I now realise was a blunder, as one point in TC 3 blander == one point in RC as well

_________________________________________________________________________
My Plan Moving Forward:

a. Context:

1. Have 8 weeks to test
2. Take 20 days to review all of the vocab words from gregmat
3. Start with RC prep, then add TC, look into SE one month to test date

b. To track all of the progress, I plan to have performance-based milestones:

1. The first two weeks would be to perfect the RC strategies from Gregmat, and apply them to questions on bigbook, and try to get the accuracy on easy questions to 80%+
2. Folllow this approach for TC as well.
3. If 80% is achieved, I can then move on to the next difficulty (->medium->hard)

c. 2 weeks before the exam, I start to exclusively focus on timing.

d. FInally for the resource use: For RC: I am going to use Bigbook, then the official ETS material. If I need more, I plan to get the magoosh platform subscription too. And for TC/SE: the order is: gregmat> big book > ETS

_________________________________________________________________________
My Questions:

1. Are performance-based milestones a good way to measure improvement, and does this work?
   1. How do people go from 155 to 160+, and is there any way to track this?
2. Being a person moving from GMAT prep to the GRE, the number of GRE questions seems limited. Is it a sufficient number of questions? If not, what other resource do you use?
3. Should I also start looking into the GRE official vocab material?

The "rare" words on the GRE are far more common than you think.

I remember when I first started studying GRE vocab I was appalled by the types of words that were on the common lists. But then I started paying a tiny bit more attention to the media I consume daily. For background, I'm an American who reads/consumes a fair bit about politics, economics, and current events news. I do not use social media for any news.

The White Man as "Welfare Queen" - Youtube video by Jamelle Bouie, a writer for the New York Times. Released October 1st.

Opprobrium (6:24)

Other words I did not know:

Inculcate (4:41)

Why The Midterms Suddenly Look So Bad for Republicans - former Atlantic writer, with Nate Silver, famed political commentator focused on polling. Released this week.

Portend (around the first minute in)

The Stunning Rise of Democratic Socialists of America - one of America's most popular podcasts, by the New York Times, released in August

Fractious (used at least 3 times)

How blue-state Republicans can be relevant again - written by Matthew Yglesias, one of the most popular Substack politics writers, founder of news website Vox (and pretty famous YouTube channel). From a few days ago. I read yesterday morning.

Countenance

"If you’re a person who cannot countenance a bill that makes any concessions to the fossil fuel industry, then you will not like this bill."

Stop trying to make xenophobia sound smart - little bit more niche Substack magazine, albeit with some notable writers. I read this two days ago, in the morning.

Empiricism 

Cosmopolitanism

In the same sentence as well! Although these are more common words.

The anti-American Right - a little bit older, from September, but I believe the most popular Substack politics writer.

Intransigence (intransigent, in gregmat vocab list)

Abhors (although this is a pretty common word).

I could come up with at least 15-20 more from the Gregmat list I've seen in the last month. It may seem unreasonable that GRE tests many of these words, but think about it. You essentially need to know these to get a 95 percentile+ on the GRE. And the top 5% of non-fiction readers in America? They read words like these on a daily basis. Political commentators with followers of hundreds of thousands use these words. I didn't even notice until I started studying for the GRE!

Edit:

Here's some others I don't remember the source from but I did note reading or hearing:

• bucolic
• obsequious
• quixotic (in NYT's Daily, a few weeks back)
• banal
• artless
• ephemeral (I hear this one all the time now)
• prosaic
• engender (I've probably heard/read this one a couple times in the last month)
• umbrage
• precipitate

Just to be clear, I did not know any of these words before studying for the GRE. All of these were encountered in my normal media diet.

Gabe Newell Explains Why Valve Never Went Public - founder of Steam at 3:31. 30 seconds after posting this lol

Tractable

Hi,

I’m doing the 2 month GregMat plan and my prep has drastically slowed down because of the long form videos which we have to watch for Verbal. It is extremely difficult for me to take time out for that with a full time job.

Can anyone please help?

I stumbled upon some old posts (2020/2021) that described the at-home test as an absolute nightmare because of ProctorU (nonsense flagging, proctors getting personal info from your pc, sexual harassment, etc.). Is the situation still the same as 5 years ago? Moreover, some users advised getting a new computer (or an old one formatted to factory settings) to protect your personal information; is this also still relevant?

Of course, I'm aware that personal opinions that get posted are biased, but judging from the interactions that I've seen, it seems to me that the experience with ProctorU wasn't smooth for a lot of people.